July 1 (Bloomberg) -- Recordings of L’Oreal SA heiress
Liliane Bettencourt’s conversations about political dealings and
Swiss bank accounts may prompt the postponement of a trial over
whether the 87-year-old was manipulated into giving a friend
about a billion euros ($1.23 billion) in gifts.

The tape recordings, made in secret by a former butler
beginning in May 2009, have drawn politicians including French
President Nicolas Sarkozy and Labor Minister Eric Woerth into
the family dispute and raised questions about whether tax
authorities ignored reports Bettencourt had 78 million euros
hidden in Swiss accounts.

“This is unheard of,” said Laurent Dubois, a professor at
Paris’s Institute of Political Studies. “This is the first and
only time, all in the public sphere,” to have such a blend of
business, family and political dramas, he said.

The trial is the culmination of a private prosecution by
Bettencourt’s only child, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, against
photographer and author Francois-Marie Banier. She says Banier
manipulated her mother’s infirmity for art, real estate, cash
and insurance policies. The trial over those claims will provide
a glimpse into one of Europe’s most prominent families.

At the trial’s opening today, Banier’s lawyer Herve Temime
asked for a postponement to give him time to review the tapes.
Meyers’s lawyer Olivier Metzner improperly sent the “explosive
documents to the press before sending them to” other parties in
the case, he said, adding the whole affair was “nauseating.”

Investigation Under Way

Judge Isabelle Prevost-Desprez said she would rule on the
postponement request later today. Prosecutor Marie-Christine
Daubigney, who has opposed Meyers pressing the case, supported
the delay, as did Metzner, who said the most important thing was
“the full truth and total transparency.”

“The investigation is already under way” into how the
tapes were made, Daubigney said, adding the trial should wait
for the probe’s conclusion. “The recordings were made under
misleading conditions.”

Metzner asked to have the tapes played during the trial,
allowing Bettencourt to be heard directly rather than have her
mental capacity and independence assessed through comments by
friends and employees.

‘This Is Real’

“All of this is recorded, all of this is real,” he said.

Bettencourt, Europe’s wealthiest woman, won’t testify and
refused to accede to medical exams from doctors selected by the
court and prosecutor.

“Liliane Bettencourt is at the center of a plot to
humiliate her, to steal her dignity,” Kiejman said.

Meyers wants the gifts returned to donate them to charity,
not for herself, Metzner said. She asked for 1 euro in damages
for herself as a “symbol,” according to the court filing.

Kiejman turned to Metzner at one point and handed over a
check for 1 euro he said Bettencourt wrote to give to her
daughter to end the matter. Metzner tore up the check.

Bettencourt says her gifts to Banier are closer in value to
450 million euros, “very far from one billion,” according to a
spokeswoman who declined to be identified.

Banier, 63, first met Bettencourt and her late husband in
1969, and befriended the heiress after photographing her for a
1987 profile in French society magazine, Egoiste. Banier has
denied Meyers’s allegations, calling it “a very sad affair,”
according to an interview in French newspaper Le Monde in
December.

Heads and Houses

He sat erect through most of the hearing, wearing a dark
suit and tie with a blue shirt. While Metzner spoke, he took out
a sketchbook and began drawing pictures of heads and houses and
circles that were visible from the public seating area.

In excerpts from the tapes, made available on French
website Mediapart last month, Bettencourt is heard asking an
adviser why she should make donations to Sarkozy and Woerth,
whose wife Florence advised the heiress on finances. Woerth, the
budget minister at the time, had initiated a clemency program to
allow tax dodgers to report foreign tax shelters.

Woerth’s wife has since left her advisory job. Woerth has
said neither he nor his wife did anything improper and that he
had no say in tax-probe decisions. His spokesman at the Labor
Ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment. Current Budget
Minister Francois Baroin has said his agents are reviewing
Bettencourt’s filings and assets.

According to the 2009 annual report, the Bettencourt family
holds a 31 percent stake in L’Oreal. Meyers, her husband and
Bettencourt are all directors of the world’s largest cosmetics
maker. The company isn’t involved in the case.

“This is a private affair,” said Stephanie Carson-Parker,
a spokeswoman for L’Oreal.

Banier could face as much as three years in prison and a
fine of 375,000 euros if found guilty.